Cosmic imagery in Shakespeare
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Transcript of Cosmic imagery in Shakespeare
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Cosmic imagery in Shakespeare
(Pheobus: the sun, the heavens, spheres)
![Page 2: Cosmic imagery in Shakespeare](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022082505/56812b1c550346895d8f0ef9/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Summary of PP content• Throughout ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ cosmic imagery is referenced on multiple occasions
• It is most prominent in scenes where Antony and Cleopatra are talking about one another
• This power point has been constructed to:
• show the most prominent instances of cosmic imagery throughout the play
• explain why the play is underscored with references to cosmic imagery
• Show why the Elizabethan audiences were interested in cosmology
![Page 3: Cosmic imagery in Shakespeare](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022082505/56812b1c550346895d8f0ef9/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
Most prominent uses• “His face was as the heavens and therein stuck a sun and moon which kept their
course and lighted the little 'O the earth”
-Cleopatra
• “His legs bestrid the ocean: his reared arm crested the world; his voice was propertied as all the tuned spheres, and that to friends; but when he meant to quail and shake the orb, he was as rattling thunder”
• -Cleopatra
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Why is the play underscored by cosmic imagery?
• Shakespeare used cosmic imagery to give the audience an amplified sense of a meaning, for example “She was beautiful” doesn’t produce the same kind of imagery as “She was more beautiful than all the stars in the heavens combined”
![Page 5: Cosmic imagery in Shakespeare](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022082505/56812b1c550346895d8f0ef9/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Why were Elizabethan audiences interested in cosmic imagery
• During the Elizabethan Era everyone barring maybe philosophers and scientists were highly superstitious
Unlike today where we can explain most things with science they didn’t have that back then.
• So instead believed everything was the work of cosmic forces, such as gods and magic.
• When something cosmic is brought into a play it is immediately captivating to the audience because it is explaining the unknown.